Learn how to better control your emotions, resist temptations, build sustainable habits, and become the best version of yourself.
Key Questions
What is the problem?
Why is self-control and discipline important?
What does the gaming term "grinding" have to do with discipline?
How can we evaluate self-control and discipline?
What are some strategies to improve self-control and discipline?
The Problem
How many times have you set a goal to achieve something and never achieved it? How many times have you started a new habit and just went back to your old habits over time? How many times have you avoided doing something because you didn't feel like doing it? How many times have you chose to do something knowing that it wasn't going to get you closer to your goals? If you lack self-control and discipline, then you can not make the most effective decisions and thus will not achieve your goals.
Self-Control & Discipline
What is self-control? Self-control is your ability to be in control of your emotions, your decision making and your behaviors. There are three types of self-control. Impulse-control which is the ability to stop and think before acting to help us think through consequences before we do something. Emotional-control which is the ability to manage feelings to help us keep going even when upsetting or unexpected things happen. Lastly, Movement-control which is the ability to control how our body moves to let us regulate what we do physically in an appropriate way.
What is discipline? Discipline is your ability to make a decision and put off what you want in the moment for what you want most. Discipline is also used to describe actions that are taken to encourage discipline in yourself and others. Three examples are, self-discipline which is the ability to do what is required to reach a goal even if you don’t feel motivated. Personal resilience which allows an individual to do what is required to achieve a goal in the face of obstacles and stress. Lastly, habits which are regular routine and tendency.
Self-control and discipline keep you on the right course and allows you to say NO! They invoke consistency despite obstacles, challenges, and distractions. They also aid you in your decision making skills in the present to fulfill your long term goals in the future. Without self-control and discipline, we simply can’t properly perform and complete the tasks required to create meaningful results.
Grinding
The gaming community popularized the term "grinding” which describes any repetitive activity that isn’t fun on its own, but performed anyway to obtain some resulting reward. In RPG's, the reward is often in the form of Experience Points or EXP which is used to level up your character, upgrade your skills, or learn new abilities.
Grinding is a form of discipline that helps develop the mental fortitude to persevere until the desired outcome is achieved.
We live in a world designed around convenience and simplicity. We want things faster, cheaper, and easier. The ability to endure routine and repetition is one that will come in handy no matter what you pursue.
Long term sustainability requires grinding. The ability to suffer through something that’s unpleasant right now in order to secure for yourself something even better in the future is essential for long term success.
Grinding to your goals by creating habits that you can sustain for the long term is more beneficial than chasing the things that only provide you with immediate satisfaction.
Evaluation
From our experience, teaching people how to STOP doing bad habits is more challenging than teaching people how to START doing good habits. One way that we evaluate our Warriors is by asking three simple questions.
What are you having the most difficulty stopping yourself from doing?
Why do you keep doing that?
What do you do on a daily basis to build self-discipline?
With these answers we are able to magnify the underlying habit that's hindering development, understand why this habit occurs, then replace this habit with something that builds self-discipline. The more bad habits that we can effectively pinpoint, understand, and prevent, the more good habits we can implement to push our Warriors faster down the path to their goals.
Strategies
Review Your Start, Stop, Continue (Awareness)
What do you need to Start doing?
What do you need to Stop doing?
What do you need to Continue doing?
Make Your Bed (Discipline)
Start your day with an easy win.
Set the tone for your entire day.
End your day with a reminder of your win regardless of how it turned out.
Repeat.
Clarify your Telescope & Microscope Goals (Focus)
Telescope goals are what you want to achieve long term.
Microscope is what you have to do today to get there.
Make monthly, quarterly, and yearly telescope goals.
Make daily and weekly Microscope goals.
Track Your Progress (Accountability)
Track your Goals (Telescope & Microscope).
Track your Nutrition (MyFitnessPal).
Track your Workouts (Walt Workout App).
IFTTT Plans (Self-Control)
IF This happens, Than That is what I will do.
Strategize by identifying People, Places, & Things.
Refer back to your Start, Stop, Continue and Telescope/Microscope goals.
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